Evelyn's confession

In what... ways has believing the Scriptures instead of human interpretations been important in your own struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil?
I think that once a seed of doubt is planted in the mind, a tree of doubt can grow in little time. By believing the Scriptures to be both true and clearly read and interpreted..., I see that I do not doubt my salvation as often or as strongly as I once did. By thinking that the passages on baptism and the Lord's Supper were to be interpreted symbolically, I wondered what other Scriptures were supposed to be interpreted symbolically. As a result, I always felt a pressing, urgent need to hear a variety of scholarly pastors and read a large array of books on Scripture and the Christian life so that I could learn from these sources and have them interpret Scripture for me. I hoped that by doing these things..., I could then understand more symbolism I had not been taught and be sure I understood what varying passages in the Scriptures really meant. Believing the Scriptures are clear has helped me in two ways. First, ...

Comparison

Imagine

Imagine a church that is both evangelical—proclaiming the free forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ—and sacramental, centering its spiritual life in the regenerating waters of baptism and the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion. Imagine further a church that is strongly grounded on Scripture, but yet avoids the solipsism of individual interpretation in favor of a comprehensive, intellectually rigorous and eminently orthodox theological system. Imagine a worship service that features both strong preaching and the historic liturgy. Imagine that this is a historical church with a rich spiritual tradition, but without legalism. Imagine, in short, a church that has some of the best parts of Protestantism and the best parts of Catholicism. Finally, imagine that this church body is not some little made-up sect, but one of the largest bodies of Christians in the world... The Lutheran synthesis is a baroque structure that can only be held together by a doctrinal rigor that constantly reinforces every point. Anglicans attempt a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism, which works through compromise, broad consensus, and a tolerance for differences. The Lutheran way, on the other hand, is one of polarities. Each pole of the paradox must be maintained and heightened. What Chesterton said in Orthodoxy of the paradoxes of Christianity is particularly descriptive of Lutheran theology: "We want not an amalgam or compromise, but both things at the top of their energy; love and wrath both burning." Christianity does not approach doctrinal issues, such as the nature of Christ or the moral status of a human being, in terms of the Aristotelian golden mean. Rather, "Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious." Thus, Lutherans are very sacramental and very evangelical... Many confessional Lutherans have taken to calling themselves "evangelical catholics." They are catholic in their historic creeds, their worship, and their sacramentalism, and they are evangelical in their trust in the good news of Christ, that in his cross he has saved us by sheer grace for a life of Christian freedom.
—Gene Edward Veith, "The First Evangelicals and Other Churches," in The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals (1999, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 113-124)

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DawningRealm

The gospel that saves

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (ESV)